RICH AGNEW Richard H. Agnew, Jr. Attorney at Law

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Psalm 33:12

An important question to ask when you have decided that you need a lawyer to help you or a member of your family with Estate or Medicaid planning is, "Who is that lawyer and do I really want to work with him in protecting me and my family in the matters covered by estate and elder law?"

Lawyers typically respond to this inquiry by telling the prospective client about all the schooling and training they have taken, their experience in the field, and all the associations that they belong to. The objective of this type of information is to tell you their qualifications for the job from a technical standpoint. I think that it is important, to a limited extent, for a potential client to know an attorney's training and experience in any field of law for which he may be employed.

HOWEVER, technical competency is only part of what you need to know - What about the lawyer's personality? And so, I decided that instead of presenting to you a picture of myself, I would put on this web page a family album photo. This photograph tells a story.

The photograph was taken a good number of years ago. My youngest daughter is now in high school and my oldest daughter is now a Lieutenant in the Army (Signal Corps). I am using this picture that is several years back in time because it is the best one with respect to my wife's folks - Grandpa has passed away and we have Grandma over for dinner after church. My parents are not in the picture because they have passed away a long time ago. My father was career Army (USMA '35) and toward the end of his career he became severely disabled. My mother had to go through Guardianship in taking care of my dad for 13 years. It was a rough experience for the family. I can remember just the names of two adults who were significant in my high school days - the name of my wrestling coach and the name of the guardianship lawyer who my mother had to see regularly while my father was at the Veterans Hospital at American Lake, State of Washington.

Later on, it was my turn to take care of my mother here in D.C.. However, by then I was a lawyer and I was beginning to understand the art and science of Estate and Medicaid planning. As my mother went through the progression of independent living, assisted living, and at the end, the nursing home, our family did not have to go through the difficulties that she experienced with respect to guardianship and probate.

Psychologically and from the standpoint of my self identity, I am not a lawyer. I am military, hardcore (USAF Academy '71). I put in 32 years in the military and while I served in the Air Force/ Air Guard I was not a lawyer. I was and still am in my dreams a pilot. My primary weapon system was the C-130 Hercules - tactical airlift. Half way through my career I joined the West Virginia Air National Guard and went to law school. What does this mean to you? It means that when you come to see me and you have a "good" lawyer joke, then I will laugh with you. If you come to see me and "bad mouth" the United States Military, then I invite you to go to another law firm. In the military, my job was to protect my country. In the legal business, my job is to protect my clients from other members of my own profession. My job is to protect you from the probate and guardianship lawyer. And therefore, I can imagine that there are some of you who are reading this thinking that I have a "bad attitude." That is all right if there are some who think this of me. I am used to it. When I served my country I knew that there were others in the world who felt that I and many others like me had a "bad attitude" because we were a frustration to these other people in their efforts to impose their political and pseudo-religious agendas on our country and our allies. However from the view point of my clients I would like to think that I am not someone with a "bad attitude;" but rather, I am one who is highly motivated in "Protecting you and your family through Estate and Medicaid Planning."

This is my attitude.

When you come to see me, the question that is on my mind is, "What is your attitude?"

Education and other things:

B.S. Economics - United States Air Force Academy

B.S. Business Administration - George Mason University

M.S. System Management - Air Force Institute of Technology School of Engineering

J.D. - George Mason University School of Law

Certified Public Accountant

Certified Management Accountant

Attorney and Counselor at Law - Virginia and D.C. Bar

Member of:

Christian Legal Society